


do over

by alineppenhallow



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Bro's don't let Bro's have an existential crisis, Brotherly Bonding, Comfort, Developing Relationship, Drabble, Episode Related, Gen, Missing Scene, Parabatai Bond, Self Confidence Issues, s02e06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 11:06:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11599353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alineppenhallow/pseuds/alineppenhallow
Summary: “And what? He’s worth seventeen thousand? He want’s to buy you something? He’s adopted that many kids?” Jace asks struggling to figure out what the number has to do with Magnus.





	do over

**Author's Note:**

> a sort of post 2x6 parabrotai missing scene regarding the large number of magnus’ exes

“Seventeen thousand,” Alec says slowly to the ceiling, enunciating every syllable with a heavy gravitas. Jace cocks an eyebrow at his brother. Magnus’ spare room is dark except for one warm soft light that they’ve dimmed to the point of darkness essentially. Alec’s lying flat out on the bed as Jace rests against the headboard. Both of them taking a moment in the quiet to ignore how thoroughly everything’s falling apart around them. 

“Huh?” Jace croaks. It’s been a comfortable silence for a while and Jace was just beginning to feel relaxed enough to sleep. 

“That’s --” Alec starts to explain, his eyes shut and his face goes blank for a second. 

“What are you on about?” Jace encourages sensing something eating at Alec, he nudges Alec’s thigh with his foot encouraging him to continue. 

Alec opens his eyes and sighs softly, “Magnus.”

Jace waits for Alec to finish but he seems to have stalled at the first word. Content to stare unblinkingly at the ceiling. 

“And? What? He’s worth seventeen thousand? He want’s to buy you something? He’s adopted that many kids?” Jace asks struggling to figure out what the number has to do with Magnus. 

“That’s how many people he’s been with,” Alec clarifies. 

The silence is thick and telling. Jace’s mind boggles at the number, struggling to really wrap his head around it. It’s far too big to even be real. 

Jace clears his throat awkwardly, “Wow...that’s uh- that’s -”

“A lot,” Alec finishes for him quietly. 

“Yeah,” Jace finishes weakly.

“Seventeen. Thousand.” Alec repeats montonaly.  

Jace’s eyebrow flicks up, a mixture of concern and wariness in his gaze as he leans into the headboard. “You okay Alec?” He asks slowly. Alec isn’t known for explosive episodes but something thrums across the bond they share making Jace think he’s hit some kind of minefield he wasn’t aware existed. 

“How am I supposed to compete with that?” Alec asks dejected. 

Jace rolls his eyes, “Alec it’s not a competition.”

“No - I mean - I’ve got nothing. NOTHING.”

“Alec I don’t think he cares how many exes you have,” Jace assures him.

“He doesn’t,” Alec agrees and Jace makes a ‘see’ noise at the back of his throat. 

“Well there you go, shouldn’t matter to you either,” he points out jabbing his big toe into Alec’s thigh making him grimace. 

“It doesn’t,” Alec grumbles shuffling a little further out of Jace’s reach. 

“Then what’s the problem?”

“What can I do that others haven’t?” Alec finally asks sounding thoroughly defeated and Jace has to admit, seventeen thousand exes doesn’t leave a great many surprises for Alec to play with… and his brother isn’t quite there yet for suggesting some of the more  _ spicy  _ ideas.  “I was thinking the other day about making a romantic dinner on the roof for him and then I realised --”

“He’s probably had a hundred and one different dinners on rooftops.” Jace nods.

“How am I supposed to come up with something new?” Alec asks with a deep sigh. Jace huffs and shakes his head. 

“Alec, you remember the seelie chick I dated for a few months a while back?”

Alec twists his head to look at him, eyebrow cocked warily, “Yeah?”

“We had dinner every Friday,” Jace says.

“So?”

“So, then I dated Laura from admin,” Jace says pointedly but Alec’s eyebrow only climbs higher.

“Yes, I remember how badly that ended,” Alec mutters and Jace kicks out at his thigh, only grazing it though and Alec shifts his hips a little further away. 

“Not the point and sooo not my fault,” Jace defends himself, “my point brother, is that Laura and I had dinner once a week too. Friday if you’re curious.”

“Ok,” Alec says slowly.

“Just ‘cause he’s had a hundred and one dinners on rooftops, there’s one thing those dinners didn’t have,” Jace waves a hand out waiting for Alec to fill in the blank. 

“What?” Alec asks confused. 

Jace slumps and wonders briefly how his nerd of a brother can be so dense sometimes. He throws a nearby ornately detailed throw pillow at Alec’s head. “You, you idiot. It didn’t have  _ you _ .” Jace groans in frustration. 

Alec, unsurprisingly, catches the pillow with ease and then throws it back at Jace’s head who isn’t as successful at catching the overstuffed projectile. 

“Oh,” Alec says the light finally dawning.

“Yeah oh,” Jace rolls his eyes and throws the pillow again, this time hitting its mark mostly due to Alec being distracted by his own thoughts clicking into place. “Most of the time we repeat what we do in relationships but what matters is doing it with the person you’re with.”

“I just...”

“Had an insecure freak out,” Jace finishes and Alec tosses the pillow back at him. Jace grins wide as he catches the half hearted throw. 

“Yeah.”

“At least you didn’t try and marry a chick this time,” Jace jokes and Alec levels him with a dark look that startles a bark of genuine laughter from him, “Too soon?”

Alec retaliates by twisting his leg at an odd angle so he can kick weakly at Jace’s. Jace fends him off with quiet laughs and the two have a short lived fencing competition with their legs that is neither graceful or completely comfortable. 

“So...you think the dinner on the roof would be okay?” Alec asks once they’ve settled, an arm tucked under his head as he stares at the ceiling, this time without the dejected air of defeat. Instead a growing soft smile pulls at his lips. 

“Absolutely,” Jace agrees relaxing against the bed again. He settles, content for a moment that at least one thing in their messed up lives is easily fixed. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](https://alineppenhallow.tumblr.com) & [Twitter](https://twitter.com/alineppenhallow)  
> 


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